Behavior Research Center, Inc. Records

Earl de Berge founded the Behavior Research Center in 1965. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona with a field office in Guatemala. The organization is an independent polling company specializing in opinion polling and market research conceived as a Western alternative to the established pollsters in the East. The BRC provides polling services for private and public organizations including corporations, non-profit organizations, municipalities, counties, social services, government agencies, and universities throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. In 1980, the company developed a Consumer Confidence and Buying Index. In the same year, BRC was invited to join other selected research firms to become charter members of the Roper Center Research Council (the largest archive of survey data in the world and an adjunct of Yale University, Williams College, and the University of Connecticut).

BRC has introduced a number of innovations to scientific polling. In the early 1990s, they created a consumer survey called HispanicTRACK© (now known as LatinoTRACK©) that focuses on consumer behavior, concerns, and issues in the Hispanic community. The initial BRC report states that this project was developed due not only to the enormous importance of the Hispanic population segment but also the critical need for accurate, timely data on the needs, opinions and problems of Hispanics. The LatinoTRACK© surveys, along with the nationally renowned Rocky Mountain Poll, are internally funded by BRC and are conducted in the public interest. While BRC no longer conducts polls for individual political candidates, it remains influential and closely watched by state and municipal governments.

Earl de Berge is Chairman of the Board, Director of Research International, and founder of the Behavior Research Center (BRC). He earned his B.A. from Antioch University and his M.A. from the University of Arizona. He also partially completed the University of Arizona's doctoral program in Political Science. In 1965, de Berge founded the Behavior Research Center as a continuation of the polling techniques and public policy interests he developed in graduate school. He is a recognized authority on population sampling, study design, and interpretation.

de Berge pioneered the first regional, nonpartisan public opinion polls in the western United States and created the award-winning Rocky Mountain Poll in 1969. As editor, he is credited with raising national awareness of western markets and tracking political attitudes. de Berge also recognized the importance of longitudinal surveys of Hispanic communities and the need to track local business trends. These interests resulted in the LatinoTRACK© (formerly called HispanicTRACK©) and BusinessTRACK© reports. Today, much of his work is focused on consumer studies involving Latinos in the United States and Central America.

de Berge is an accomplished author who has published numerous professional articles in business, marketing, and research journals. He has also served as an expert witness in courts of law and on numerous civic and cultural boards. He describes himself as a gentleman rancher with an artistic talent for sculpting metal and painting. de Berge and his wife and business partner Suzanne share an abiding interest in traditional cultures, sustainability, and public welfare issues. Inspired by volunteer work with the Earthwatch Institute, the pair founded two non-profit organizations in Guatemala, Semillas para el Futuro and the Southern Maya Project for Archaeology and Community (SMPAC). These organizations are designed to help the citizens of the mountain community of Chocolá plan and achieve prosperity based on balanced development principles that protect cultural tradition, the natural environment and preserve Mayan and post-colonial history.